I had given up on finding an 850 Turbo Wagon with nice body and interior with engine trouble for cheap. I ran a want ad on Craigslist for a month and got 3 calls. One was green and ragged out with one dead cylinder and the yoyo wanted $1600 and the next call was also about a green one with faded and peeling clear coat and a $2000 price and the 3rd was red with major rear collision damage and the guy wanted $1000.

At this point I was a bit disappointed and stopped running the ad. Three days ago, before going to play golf, I checked craigslist and searched Volvo and the top of the list said "96 Volvo 850 Turbo Wagon $650". No phone number so I emailed and got a call from the guy 3 hours later. My first question was about the color. I said, "please don't tell me it's green", he laughed and said it was white with black leather and the body and interior was very nice. He said it ran fine but needed a radiator, cooling fan, brakes, a ball joint, upper strut mount and the usual odometer gear.

I wanted to leave right then and go look at it but he didn't get off work until 6pm so I finished the round of golf. I was at his house right at 6:30 and I could not believe he only wanted $650 for it. It was a Platinum Edition and looked great but a little dirty. I drove it around the block and it ran perfectly.

He had taken it to a Volvo shop when the cooling fan quit and asked them to go over the car and give him an estimate to fix all the little problems it had and they gave him back an estimate of over $1800. He decided to sell instead and wanted to be fair with the asking price. heh!

Needless to say, I put $650 in his hand and got the title and drove it the 20miles back home. I had the heater on full blast and the temp never got above mid way.

The only things it actually needs is cooling fan, brake pads, ball joint, strut mount and odometer gear. Everything works perfect. It's a one owner car with approx. 160k miles and a non smoker car. It has 3 tiny door dings on the driver side. The grey plastic on the bumpers is faded and I have order the Showroom New dye to remedy that and I can get a fan from Pull a Part for $30.

I have gotten some good deals on cars before but this has to be the best deal yet.

This is my first Volvo and I just love it. Sorry for the long read but I'm still very excited.

Woohoo!

All the photos can be seen here....http://schigara.smugmug.com/Other/96...77262984_6J939

 

WOW what a deal!!! CONGRATS!!!!

 

I love the platinum wagons.

 

THAT INTERIOR IS SOOO CLEAN! I was shouting as I typed that. And I love the White on Black, real classy.

 

Thanks man. It's clean now. You should have seen it before I spent all day cleaning the spilled coke out of thee center console, carpet and even in the radio. I had to remove the center console and radio and disassemble everything to clean out the syrup.

I am over joyed with the color combo. After seeing 2 green ones, I was very happy to get this one.

 

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the Volvo green, nor am I very particular to the tan interior, even the gray interior is kind of iffy to me. I can't wait until I can get into my wagon and get the interior cleaned real nice.

 

Wow, that thing is NICE... and Platinum Edition, talk about a major SCORE! Congrats...

 

Very Nice!

 

Great score!! I myself like a good buy.

 

I happen to strongly dislike good buys. I usually search around until I can find the worst possible way to spend my money.


HA

 

As they say on Barrett-Jackson, Well Bought. I thought I got a deal on my Platinum at $1,200.

Fix the door lamp before it breaks clean off.

At $600 you could sell the Persus wheels and break even if they are in good shape.

...Lee

 

The door lamp was cracked and I got a good one as well as a good radiator fan at Pull a Part today for $15.

The Persus wheels are really starting to grow on me. I'm still torn between them or a set of 18" Titan's. If I keep the Persus, I will have to get the correct size tires for them. They are currently sitting on 205/55/16's. I can get the correct size of 205/50/16's for $405 all in. The Persus wheels are perfect except one has experienced a bit of female driver(curb rash).